2017 Predictions #18: Foot Traffic Impacts Budgets

To give you a jump start on the new year, we asked industry experts about their predictions for the future of location, marketing, and technology in 2017. We'll be posting their responses over the next month here on the Yext blog. Follow us on Twitter @Yext for new posts, and tweet at us with your own predictions.

David Buckley Chief Marketing Officer, Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores

2017 will be the year where the increasing availability of foot traffic data will begin to impact the way brick and mortar retailers spend their digital advertising budgets. Latitude, longitude, and device ID will quickly become the cookie of the physical world as it is brought into the mainstream by Google and Facebook. Location will begin to shift from its primary role as a targeting attribute into a way for brick and mortar businesses to measure advertising effectiveness. Advertisers with a desire to drive footsteps will favor publishers and networks able to provide this level of data, eventually making clicks to store visits a common metric.

This post is part of a series of 2017 predictions from industry experts.